I remember reading in Finescale Modeler magazine or on their website about people trying to get or build their own vacuforming machine. Vacuforming is a way to mold objects by heating a sheet of plastic, then pulling it down over a vacuum table, which sucks the plastic over a pattern. Ta da, a copy of the surface is born. This has been used in model kits for quite awhile, especially in MiniArt kits.

I was flipping around YouTube and came across some videos that show you how to make a vacuforming machine, so I decided to post them here. Some of these machines are pretty big and not made for modeling purposes, but I think they’re still useful.